By Rudolf Ammann · May 26, 2005
Sao Paolo, the Brazilian metropolis in which Dekita.org editor Barbara Dieu works, has just been hit by flash floods triggered by torrential rainfall. Bee is fine but has lost Internet access.
We hope she’ll manage to get back online in time for her weekly chat at the Blogstreams Salon this Sunday.
The Dekita header banner, incidentally, shows the beach at the port of Santos, near Sao Paolo, in much better weather.
All the best, Bee, and get back soon!
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Phil
wrote on May 26, 2005:
This kind of flooding is rarely a purely “natural” disaster. Heavy rainfall is almost always linked to poor urban planning and insufficient investment in infrastructure. Time and time again, urban areas are hit with floods where the loss of life is aggravated by the knowledge that the disaster was, above all, preventable.
Bee, I hope damage and danger to your home, school and loved ones was not severe. Let us know if there’s anything we can do to help.
Cheers, —- Phil
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rosa
wrote on May 27, 2005:
Terrible news, Bee.
I hope you are OK and the damage hasn’t been too bad for everyone. One of my students, Ismat, wrote about how they get floods every year in her country. She was just showing it to me on Wed!
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Alyne
wrote on May 27, 2005:
I hope Bee is OK, and that her pupils are OK as well! I can’t believe I’ve not even heard about the floading on National news here!
I hope you’ll be online soon, so we can make sure you’re allright!
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Teresa
wrote on May 28, 2005:
Ola querida amiga! (Hi dear friend!)
Hope all is well with you, your family, friends and students.
Your silence regarding two messages was strange, but I thought you were away at your ‘sitio’.
Hope we can connect real soon!
Beijos,
Teresa
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Bee
wrote on May 29, 2005:
I’m back and (fortunately) connected :-). I’m OK and thanks for the warm messages and caring. I have not had contact with my students yet but believe all is well. Lots of wreckage and material damages in the city though.
As you say Phil, it is not only a natural disaster (though we did have a lot of unexpected and intermitent heavy rain) but mostly a man-made disaster. Sao Paulo is the second largest city in the world and, as in all developing countries, it suffers from poor urban planning (it has sprawled like an octopus) and insufficient investment in infrastructure (bureaucracy, corruption, politicians’ greed and short term vision divert the necessary money from where it should be – you get the picture).
Fortunately, the rain seems to have washed away (the man-made) pollution and dirt and we’ve had three days of gorgeous blue sky and golden sunlight. Nature does not disappoint us. Just warns us. I just hope most of us understand the signal before it is too late and we work towards improvement so that future generations can enjoy beauty and peace.
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Sarolta
wrote on May 31, 2005:
I’m glad you’re fine, Bee.
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